Archived: Ben Ponniah – Choral CD: Help make a professional recording of the composer’s beautiful unaccompanied choral works.

Project aim

Help make a professional recording of composer Ben Ponniah’s beautiful unaccompanied choral works.

Help make a professional recording of composer Ben Ponniah’s beautiful unaccompanied choral works.

Here are some of my most formative musical memories. The earliest starts with me sitting on my mother’s knee while she played the theme from Love Story (the film from 1970) on our piano at home in Ipswich. I later joined the choir of St Mary-le-Tower aged 6 under Mr John Cooper’s direction, where I was introduced to a wide range of choral works, which still provide comfort and joy to me to this day. For example, Messiaen’s O Sacrum Convivium, Poulenc’s O Magnum Mysterium and Tavener’s The Lamb. At a similar time, I started learning the piano and eventually became most inspired by Bach, Chopin, Poulenc, Rachmaninoff and Scriabin. I started composing during my GCSE years at Ipswich School, with Mr Neil Matthews as my teacher, and wrote a Fugue for Piano in C minor for my music coursework. Towards the end of my MSc year in Economics at the University of Nottingham, I had jazz piano lessons with Alex Wilson, which opened my eyes to a whole new way of looking at music! During my gap year, aged 22, I started writing unaccompanied choral music that blended jazz harmony and minimalism. With the kind advice and encouragement of John Cooper, Michael Nicholas, Alex Wilson, Paul Ayres, Peter Bullett, Peter Siepmann, Harry Gregson-Williams and Sarah MacDonald, I have continued to compose over the past decade. Within the last year or so, I have practised mindfulness, and there is one composition on the album that reflects this, called Ever Mindful. I now have a substantial body of music that I am happy with.

Sarah MacDonald, Director of Music at Selwyn College, Cambridge, said the following: “Ben is the only composer that I have invited to become part of our established and well-reputed single-composer disc series (all other composers have approached me, or have submitted repertoire to be assessed). I have no doubt that Ben is a really important new voice in the choral music world, and I hope that you are able to support this project to help him become known to a wider audience.”

The overall cost of this project is £4000, which covers the recording expenses. Thank you very much for making this recording possible and for sharing this link with friends, family, colleagues via your social networks and e-mail.